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Ernst von Salomon (September 25, 1902 - August 9, 1972) was a German writer and one of the assassins of Walther Rathenau.
He was born in Kiel, the son of an
officer. From 1913 he was a cadet in Karlsruhe and
Berlin-Lichterfelde; from 1919 Freikorps ("Free-Corps") in
the Baltic and Upper Silesia.
He received a five year prison sentence in 1922 for taking part in
the plot to assassinate Walther Rathenau. In 1927 he received
another prison sentence for an attempted feme murder, and was released
after a few months. The courts at this time were largely sympathetic to
right-wing radicals.
From 1933–1945 Salomon — like almost all
right-wing "Free-Corps" fighters — resented Adolf Hitler
(as characterised by the thought, "Where was Hitler when
we fought the communists in 1919/20?"), and wrote for cinema.
Salomon was interned by the Americans from 1945–1946.
In 1951 he published the book "Der Fragebogen" ("The Questionnaire"), in which he publicised his answers to the 131 point questionnaire every German had
to answer after the war about his relationship to the Nazi
Government. A famous public discussion of the book took place in
Cologne main station, organised by bookseller Gerhard Ludwig. This
may be seen at one of the first steps in German post-war education in Democracy.
Salomon died in Stoeckte near Winsen.
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